funding for New Mexico and focus provided by viewers like you this week on New Mexico and focus more than a hundred people years of work and dozens of recommendations pushed to the side as the governor quietly closed the book on New Mexico's missing and murdered indigenous women and relatives task force still today I'm in complete shock we have to support one another cuz no one else is there to support one another celebrating Native American heritage month at our libraries how learning to make something like decorative moccasins can help bridge a widening cultural Gap New Mexico and focus starts now thanks for joining us I'm Laura pascus in the chair where you've been seeing a lot of Lou deiso over the past few months this week we'll be focusing on indigenous issues from around the state the majority of our time will be spent on Governor Michelle Luhan grisham's decision to quietly shut down the state's missing and murdered indigenous women and relatives task force the news has upset and disappointed former task force members and families whose children parents and other loved ones have been murdered or gone missing and whose cases remain unsolved in October reporter Bella Davis broke this story at New Mexico in depth she sits down in the studio with a member of the dis Ed task force and a mother whose son was murdered 3 years after his death she's still waiting for answers from investigators but we begin this week with Secretary of the US Department of the Interior Deb Holland this summer Holland announced an order ending oil and gas leases on federal lands in a 10mile radius around choco culture National Historic Park in an interview you will see only on New Mexico in focus correspondent Antonia Gonzalez talks to Holland and she asks her to respond to activists who say the federal government is not doing enough to protect the greater Taco landscape Secretary of the Interior Deb Holland welcome to New Mexico and focus thank you I'm so happy to be here Antonia and you've been leading the Interior Department for more than two years now you've worked on a number of initiatives for American Indian and Alaskan native communities reflecting on your time so far what has surprised you the most about the Pol the possibilities but also the limitations of the job well I I can't say that I was necessarily surprised but I feel like you know H being in this position with such a wonderful team of people um you know leadership in the department that we've been able to really uh get a lot done I am grateful that uh President Biden is committed to Indian Country uh he made sure that all of us across the entire Administration um are uh committed to tribal consultation robust tribal consultation and I think that in and of itself has been one of the driving um factors behind us accomplishing so much it's making sure that tribes have a seat at the table uh Alaska natives or Indian tribes the lower 48 as well as native Hawaiians um have a voice at the decision-making table and and I think that has helped us tremendously to accomplish so much and here in New Mexico as New Mexico's representative you were a vocal um active proponent for protecting the greater choco Canyon Canyon uh landscape here from oil and gas development as interior secretary however the Department's honoring choco initiative has been widely criticized for not protecting the area enough are your hands tied at the department on this issue well I am very proud of what we have been able to do uh withdraw of you know minerals in a 10 mile radius around the uh the National Historical Park um we feel that in and of itself will um you know that buffer zone will absolutely ensure that um the the cultural history that is in that Park is protected and um that was really the focus of what we wanted to do and when you were here there were some protests um can you talk a little bit about the complexities of the Cher the checkerboard area sure well um as we have said uh time and again the withdrawal only covers federal land so it doesn't touch any private land or allotted lands uh uh for any people living in the area it's only a protection for federal lands um and of course um we had so many conversations across New Mexico with uh members of tribes including the Navajo Nation in various parts of New Mexico we extended the public comment period so that folks had a chance to weigh in uh with their thoughts we got uh over a 100,000 comments which is a lot um and we considered all of those um perspectives as we were um working on the withdrawals and we do have to ask about the investigation by the house natural resources committee have you been interviewed about that I have not been interviewed by the house natural resources committee do you have anything to respond to to allegations um with the connection to the PUO Alliance oh sure well of course I you know we have an ethics department at the department of the we have an Ethics office at the department of the Interior um I follow every single ethics advice I follow all the rules I am I feel very confident that I have not um breached any uh protocols or or ethics recusals that that have been placed on me I am I am I am committed to ensuring that I do everything in the most ethical uh way um I feel Antonia I feel like I'm a role model for the younger generation and certainly for you know when I think about my nieces and nephews all of those young Native folks who call me auntie um I feel committed to uh being a role model and so I do everything in the best possible way I can well let's move on to your boarding school initiative that just uh wrapped up can you share a little bit about um what you found so far in so many instances uh folks have told us that uh they were reluctant to share a thing with their families but felt it was time to finally say something about the experiences that they have had we feel that is you know that's healing for for people and uh that was the purpose of of our road to Healing was to really start um healing for the country this this is a history that all Americans share not just Native Americans and so ensuring that we are uh open and honest about the past history of this country was is has been really important to us and I I think overall uh it's been a really good experience for everyone who has participated and how can your agency further healing efforts in tribal communities when it comes to boarding school and impacts of boarding schools we're building some new schools uh we're refurbishing some schools we're we're making sure that Indian students uh have opportunities to learn in in their own way um additionally we are looking forward to uh an oral history project it will be housed with the Smithsonian institution in Washington DC and um as I as I mentioned Native American history is American history and so we want to make sure that um that that information is open to um the our larger uh country so that people can learn and and you know it it'll take a lot to heal but uh certainly ensuring that uh we can help with things that Indian communities have have lost during these assimilation policies and namely I should say um Native languages that was a topic that was so often reiterated around the country um and so we know that President Biden has been incredibly supportive of native language preservation and we'll continue with that as well and another important issue to you is missing and murdered indigenous people the Not Invisible act commission just release its recommendations uh what stood out to you so oh gosh we're so you know I I we worked on the Not Invisible act commission when I was a member of Congress we felt very strongly that uh that nobody can have all the answers and this has to be a concerted effort so um we're we're proud uh that we were able to pass the Not Invisible act uh during the time I was in Congress and then now implement it while I'm Secretary of the Interior um we uh we hope to uh respond to that uh to those recommendations and we'll we'll just keep you informed as as we move along but Phil you know missing a murdered indigenous peoples is um it's a it's an issue that has been present here um since colonization started on this continent um it's going to take more than a few pieces of legislation to remedy uh this really horrible um you know these horrible events and so um we're going to keep working on it you might know also that we have uh missing a murder unit that we started in 2021 um that increased investigations across the country we have investigators housed um at in every region of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and uh we're putting concerted uh time funding and effort toward ensuring that we can solve these cases that we can help families um to heal in that respect as well and secretary um Deb Holland you've made history of a few times here becoming a native woman serving in Congress and also leading the Interior Department as a native woman leader um you had mentioned that you do feel responsibility so what kind of responsibility do you feel for helping American Indian and Alaskan native communities as a woman leader thank you well you know when I ran for congress in 2018 uh My slogan was Congress has never heard a voice like mine um the president decided that and he promised that his cabinet would look would look like America and uh and so I I feel like all of us recognize the value that differing perspectives bring to the decision-making table uh you know I um when I do my road to healings I start out saying this is the first time in history that a cabinet secretary has come to the table with the shared trauma of of the people who were in the room and so um um you know my my grandparents were um they were survivors of the boarding school we have in our on the PUO of lagona and across the country um Indian tribes have have lived by the decisions that the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the larger um differing administrations have made for them and so it's important that we have those voices at the table and so in that respect we have a a a large number of native people serving at high governmental uh levels at decisionmaking levels um director Shelley low uh from the uh National Endowment for the Humanities for example she's from the Navajo Nation um and so it it's important that that when you have those perspectives uh at the table you know that folks will bring in uh their experiences their knowled knowledge the things that they were taught by their grandparents um and I feel that uh when I'm when I am um you know making decisions uh for the Department I feel very strongly that uh that my perspective my knowledge my experience of my peblo and Military upbringing um influence the decisions I make and and so um I think that's a good thing perspectives uh differing perspectives is important and secretary Holland people across Indian Country lovingly call you atib or anti-b so what is next for you and your goals um for American Indians and Alaskan native people uh leading the Interior Department thank you so much well we have you know we're so blessed to have uh the bipartisan infrastructure law the inflation reduction act uh and uh and in in fact the um the uh the various pieces of legislation that uh President Biden has signed into law we're going to keep making sure that we can uh help tribes to uh to realize this funding in the best ways possible for their communities um there are um you know and and I should also say uh one of the things that I'm particularly proud of that we've done um is we have helped tribes to enter into Costa ship agreements with us co- stewardship of our public lands uh we have done 20 already um we signed uh the management uh the management uh opportunities for in fact for the national Bison Range over to the confederated Salish and coutney tribes there's a fish hatchery in Idaho uh that the Nez Pur tribe is managing now um those co- stewardship opportunities will continue we sign these agreements uh tribes help us uh with their um indigenous knowledge their traditional knowledge that um that will help to Steward our lands um we have 60 more of those agreements in the works and so um I think uh making sure that we are managing our public lands that's one of our big missions for the Department of the Interior that it's an all hands on deck moment in this era of climate change that will be able to do some really wonderful things uh for the American people and before we let you go um happy Native American Heritage Month what is your message what would you like to tell the public well I I I I appreciate that Antonia looks you know for so long um I know that tribes have struggled uh to be heard um you know invisibility was really one of our worst enemies we could we could you know we could say things we could advocate for things um people wouldn't hear us and I I feel that um now is our opportunity just to uh have our voices heard and um I'm so proud uh of the youth who have uh really taken um their leadership position seriously uh working for the betterment of our environment of our ecosystems of our entire country um I want to encourage every native youth uh to do whatever they can to learn their language that their traditional languages are the most important thing that will connect them to their people and um and we and into the future uh teaching their children and grandchildren how to speak their languages um I think that's one of the best ways we can honor our ancestors Secretary of the Interior Deb Holland thank you so much for joining us on New Mexico PBS than thank you Antonia our elders are slowly slowly going away and it's not until for example a small family they lose one of their Elders there goes the teachings and then there goes the language and of course they take that with them and so we really need to see and diminish that Gap and this is a way for them to do that and at the same time have fun with it because if you're not having fun with it what are you really learning four years ago state legislators created a new task force dedicated to identifying defining and addressing the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous people the state took action after a study from the urban Indian Health Institute that showed New Mexico led the nation in missing and murdered indigenous women and girls then in 2021 Governor Michelle Luhan Grisham signed an executive order expanding the task force it also empowered members to seek Solutions the task force set to work building Partnerships among tribes and law enforcement agencies connecting families and communities and coming up with a report more than a 100 pages long full of short and long-term strategies but in a move that surprised its members the governor's Administration shut down that task force in collaboration with New Mexico in depth reporter Bella Davis interviews Darlene Gomez an attorney and former taskforce member and vanie Randall shorty a DA mother whose son Zachariah was murdered Davis asks where this decision leaves their work and the families relying upon it bie Darlene thank you so much for joining me today on New Mexico and focus we're here to talk about the disbanding of the missing and murdered indigenous women and relatives task force by Governor Michelle Luhan grisham's Administration earlier this year um and what that means going forward in a state that's been deeply impacted by um this National crisis of disproportionate violence against indigenous people um bji over the past few years you've become um an advocate not only for your son Zachariah but also for other indigenous families who have lost loved ones um to start can you tell us about who your son was my son Zachariah Jan shorty he was 23 years old um loved music loved tattooing was a very fun person loving person he was a dad he was a grandson a brother and my baby um um starting life starting live he went out with some friends and to make music went missing was found 4 days later on the nav reservation and he was murdered and 3 years later I'm here because I'm still waiting for answers I just recently found out that um his um the FBI agent working on his case um she's no longer in the office and so we have a new agent and I'm still waiting to meet with that agent as well um as far as the New Mexico task force you know I've been very devastated with that when it first started I had hopes you know that not only myself but other families had hopes of you know bringing their loved ones home and in my case you know getting Justice for Zach and again 3 years three years later I'm still waiting and with it ending you know where do we go from here is my question I'm so sorry for your loss um you touched on this a little bit but what are some of the challenges that you faced in trying to get Justice for your son lack of communication and jurisdiction you know the um we have different organizations from the very beginning you know as far as when I went back to making that first phone call when he went missing that was with the farington police department and then when he was found he was found on the na Navajo reservation so having to deal with the Navajo Nation Police Department the detectives from s County and the criminal investigator from Navajo Nation and then back to the F FBI having you know the case in their hands and it's and then you know through this um task force being involved with the Bia missing inerted unit as well so having them all together and it feels like there's been that power struggle of okay we don't have the case they have the case okay we have to contact Navajo Nation we have know FBI has the case so just you know pointing finger pointing is what it seems to have been the these past three years and going back to um about six months ago the governor's Administration um made the decision to to disband the task force um that was really created to find um solutions to the challenges you just described um along with so many others um Darlene what did you think and feel when you learned the task force was done so I was invited to a task force Summit meeting which occurred I think in June and at that time I was not told told that this was going to be a meeting ending the task force so 121 people were invited to that meeting and I would say maybe 25 showed up so throughout the meeting the summit we were talking about you know how to take care of ourselves and we were hearing from a a woman who is the governor of ablo and just you know some really moving stories about people within the movement so at the very last before it closed we were told that that the mmiw task force was going to be ending so I of course after melan d delmare came off the stage I talked to her and I said really are you going to do a press release are you going to make a public announcement because nobody knows and there's only like 25 of us in this room so I left that day still not really realizing that it was a true and correct statement that the task force was ended so I kind of went on the next six months not getting calls from anyone from the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department nothing about the task force and then I think I received a call from from you Bella asking me if indeed this was true and I said yeah I heard about it in May or June but I never saw a press release I never saw a public announcement and I had been looking for them so still today I'm in complete shock because although we finished the we came up with the plan the state plan as it's called but that was a whole year and a half ago and so we were led to believe all the way up until May or June that this was continuing that we were in the second phase of implementing the 60-page plan so even today you know it's still hard to believe that we're actually disbanded and we just came back from a meeting with the indan Affairs Division and a representative of Michelle Luhan grisham's office because we really feel like there needs to be a new executive order extending the task force into implementing the plan you um the two of you were one of a few dozen people who who went to Santa Fe um in October to protest the dis spanning of the task force um what were you um hoping to get out of that protest maybe bji if we could start with you answers um you know I was shocked lots of emotions I was upset like you know wondering wanting to know why they said the task force ended because you know from my point of view from being zachariah's Mom their job is not done it's far from being done and I think you know all they did was gather statistics which I don't think are even accurate you know there's more than 181 81 people that are missing and you know murdered and those that are missing have not returned home in Zach's case with you know him being murdered I'm still waiting for justice and so their task force is far from being done at that protest um in Santa Fe you all met with the spokeswoman for the governor and um and asked for a meeting which Darlene you mentioned just recently happened um can you tell us a little bit about um sort of the explanation that you got for why the task force has been disbanded so initially when we did our protest our rally I think one of the things that we wanted the governor's office to know is that we will not be silenced that we have been silenced for far too long and that we all have voices zachariah's mom's his voice we have uh Calvin Martinez Becky is his voice and we wanted to show that we're United that you could take this task force away but we're still pushing for answers so what we learned that day was that the governor's team felt that the executive order had been fulfilled because we did have this mmiw state response plan so in their mind that was the end of the executive order so it felt like to me that they had not really implemented anything from that plan and were a whole year and a half later so one of my questions was well why did you go a whole year and a half letting us believe that this task force was still going to be working together and so basically she said well you know I apologize maybe we should have been more transparent by doing a press release and you know we are not saying it's ending quote but it's just on to a different phase that is not covered under the executive order so in today's meeting you know we came up with all of us collectively that came to the meeting today and also the other families that couldn't make it we came up with some ideas on what uh Indian Affairs Division and the governor's office could do immediately one was to have a mmwr link on the page so that would allow everyone to see what who is missing and then also to allow each family to to tell their story who their loved one was because often times I feel like people don't realize behind a statistic There's an actual person that is being missed and that's loved and one of the second things is that we really wanted the governor's office and Internal Affairs division to have a resource list where families could go to have a resource list and we also asked that a new Executive Order be drafted by the governor for the second part of the mmiw task force and that would be the Implement implementation team and I think you know for me one of the things with this task force ending is that I no longer have access to the 121 people who were a part of the task force because often times it would be the FBI uh Bureau of Indian Affairs the district attorney and we were able to talk to them and say like hey I you know I called you two weeks ago do you have a few minutes to talk or I also had a list of everybody who was on that task force and I was able to call like the Farmington Police Department and ask about a case and it also gave all the members a chance to trust one another because when I say something I'm going to do it and there's all these misconceptions in the paper you know I'm this activist that's always yelling and screaming but then when people met me they just knew that I had a passion for finding our missing and murdered and so it basically wiped away that link so I'm in The Silo by myself with the families we're our own we we have to support one another because no one else is there to support one another and without this task force the governor's office and the Indian Affairs division they can't force people to work on this plan because we have federal agencies that they have no control over we have Sovereign Nations that they have no control over it goes to nonprofits so I felt like this task force allowed everybody to be cohesive and work on a plan no matter what agency they came from and everybody was really dedicated to it so to just end it and say you know I heard the Indian Affairs secretary Mountain State that they wanted to hire four more individuals well what's four more individuals going to do when you had 121 experts in mmiw R from on the ground family members Advocates Law Enforcement legislator you can't get that in four people so those were some of our questions today like what does this mean and then we also were really Frank about getting data because we were told oh yeah we've been working on this this entire time but when we pressed the governor's office and the Secretary of Indian Affairs office they couldn't provide exact data for us or they couldn't tell us what steps that they took to implement the plan they said oh we're following this plan well the plan is 60 Pages yeah you you talked about the the plan um that it does it contains so many recommendations um dozens of recommendations from better data collection to you know funding for Liaisons who could help affected families um navigate the criminal justice system um I'm wondering for you vanie if there are any particular recommendations um from that response plan that you you feel like state leader should really be prioritizing I think that open communication backup you know just like Darlene had stated she can't just pick up the phone and reach these different organizations you know it's not there anymore so I think that needs to be you know addressed and open back up you know she's she's my darling's my resource my go-to person and you know and then she's she's that middle person and it helps me connect with the FBI and whoever else that I need to contact on Zach's behalf and Darlene as an attorney you're so familiar with kind of how these cases work when we talk about kind of the Criminal Justice System um and so for you are there any recommendations that really stand out from the response plan well I think when is the community engagement like engaging the community and having resources for them because I work with 20 families and there's no resources there's nonprofits who get dollars for mmiw but to have them actually advocate for the families and help the families it's not going to those families directly it's like big trainings um I really think the data collection is vital and I felt like with the task force being um together like we had governor from queblo we had presidents from like the Hickory Apache Indian Tribe muscolo and we had the people sitting at the table from all the Sovereign Nations who could commit to saying like Okay I'll give you our data give me what data we're going to follow give me you know the the standard model and I'll take it back to my tribe and we will implement it well now that it's not there and so many tribal leaders have 100 things on their plates so I felt like the task force made everybody accountable and it made people really want to be like okay well I'm going to show you what our nation is doing I'm showing you what the FBI is doing so I felt that this also gave people the incentive to start new programs in their office so they can get on the media and say like hey look what we're doing it's really working and I think that was really relevant with the FBI when they started the missing person in New Mexico native American uh list of pictures that comes out once a month and that took a lot of work and it took a lot of commitment from the FBI but I think that part you know partially it was because there was this forum where we were able to tell them like this is what we need and I think often times law enforcement doesn't really get the opportunity to know the victim's families or The Advocates and they can learn so much from vanie and the rest of the families they can learn from me and we can also talk to them and when they tell us like look these are our barriers we're able to to fight for them whether it's in Congress or at the state level and we all know that everybody is underfunded lack of resources lack of officers but that doesn't give anyone the excuse not to properly investigate mmiw so at this point there's um there's some disagreement about how um we as a state should move forward you talked about how you know the Indian Affairs department has um a requested funding from the legislature for four full-time employees um to focus on carrying out the task force recommendations um and then sort of on the other hand there are a few um State lawmakers who have expressed interest in bringing the task force back um and I think part of the idea there is that it's giving the task force um sort of longevity instead of having another um executive order um so I'm wondering for you Darlene what you hope um to see happen during this upcoming legislative session well we have collectively asked for a statute that would make the Indian Affairs or the murdered missing indigenous women relatives task force a standalone division um we were told today that that's something that's not possible from the governor's office so you know we really need it into statute if that's not something that is possible with the governor then we're going to have to ask ask our state legislators to put it in statute because New Mexico's rank number one in the entire nation for missing and murdered indigenous people I don't foresee that we're going to be 50th at any time soon so this is a issue that has gone back to the 1900s and earlier when you know Spain came into New Mexico Arizona and so this is just generational and this is not going to end and so just to think that four people are going to be able to control this that's not anything that is um possible so we need to extend it all the way you know until we're no longer on this Earth because it is an issue and has been an issue for a very long time vanie Darlene thank you both so much for your time for joining me today thank you yeah you're welcome thank you for listening thank you again to bellaa Davis she first reported the governor had disbanded the task force last month and her latest story for New Mexico in depth she reveals that State Attorney General rul Torres has failed to spend a million dollars set aside by the state legislature nearly two years ago to help track cases of missing indigenous people you can read that in all of her work at nind depth.

right now we've got more on that topic Janna feifer was appointed to that same state task force she's also been a vocal Advocate on the issue for years so has Shireen Baker who recently organized an event honoring missing indigenous people through ART and conversation this week Antonia Gonzalez spoke with both of them about their Grassroots initiatives now that the state's task force has been shut down and how human trafficking is fueling the crisis jna and Sharina welcome to New Mexico and focus thank you for having us and you've both dedicated yearslong work to addressing missing and murdered indigenous relatives issues including advocacy and research uh Shireen I want to start with you you've done recent work working with UNM CNM and sippy tell me why that's important so um this work for me goes back many years when I went to Haso which is an all Native University um Native American University and so um I started understanding that like this was a common problem and I started looking more into it so when I did my Master's I started reading more books about it um but when I moved here I wanted to focus on college students because I feel that we would reach more a more span of people if we are educating our college students especially our native women and and boys um so that when they go back to their reservations when they go back to their homes and they can talk about it at the table and bring it up in their Community um we felt it was really important that we can reach out to the college students and they can educate their younger ones and educate their older ones and Jana you've done a lot of work on this issue um as well including serving on different task task forces um how does the crime of human trafficking fit in so human trafficking is prevalent here in the City of Albuquerque and we are noticing within the past decade how within Metropolis cities a lot of our native people are transient um communities where they are able to live in their communities but also travel to the city for work um groceries or you know if they get paid monthly they want to have um you know get their food and so forth so um that has allowed a lot of our native communities to come um to the Metropolis City so with that issue we're seeing here in the City of Albuquerque a lot of the homeless population um maybe they are not able to afford their rent um they're not getting a proper job um income Revenue that's um sustaining their families they find themselves homeless on the on streets as well and so we have different areas here in the city where we're identifying um a huge populations of unsheltered relatives and unfortunately um one route in particular is Central where we're identifying certain bus stops where a lot of the homeless people um can be picked up um drug is Al also a contributing factor as well as substance abuse and unfortunately um when you see vulnerable populations that are unsheltered on their on on the streets uh a lot of these um traffickers individuals who don't have good intentions will see a person who's in a very vulnerable state and take advantage of that and have you seen any changes um when it comes to outreach because you've done Outreach yourself as well or even just combating it MH so I have seen a lot of um changes with Street Outreach um it's very common now that our a lot of our community Grassroots organizations um community members as well such as Sharina is also recognizing the importance of really um extending a helping hand to a lot of our unsheltered relatives and making sure that if they are needing some form of um housing assistance um the city of alberquerque is really good at providing some solutions to that in addition um a food kitchen with first nation's Community House Source um a lot of Integrative um wraparound Services e either behavioral health or medical services those are some of the main services that are presented to unsheltered relatives on the streets so that they can be connected and and hopefully um begin their healing journey to you know stepping away from being vulnerable and unsheltered on the streets so Street Outreach is a very important um component when it comes to meeting where the um our relatives that are most vul vulnerable on the streets and and really link them to important services and your work as well um talking to college students about human trafficking and holding events there was a recent event that you helped organize um share a little bit about that and that was at sippi yeah so um a few years ago 2016 actually so quite a few years ago um there was an earring exhibit that was going around um and it had been started and so the earrings represent like when you miss when you're missing one earring it kind of is like analogy for like you missing a relative because they're just not complete um so we created um an exhibit for that to like represent and display and then around that we have conversations about um we bring in professionals so I wouldn't consider myself a professional but we um in the that line of work even though I do have experience um but we bring in people who are in the in the thick of it whether they are um like Anita lucasi who is the director for The Sovereign bodies Institute and her soul job is just to really help native communities nationally and I think even internationally they've helped um and so we kind of highlight them and we let them speak and we have dialogue and we open it up for our college students but we not only open it up for them but their families the community as well and we can really like educate on that level but then also um now we're going to start doing more events where it's more action and so we would like to do um we are doing an April um next semester I guess next or in the spring um we are going to do self-defense classes and like different techniques um I also educate on like I'll do streams of Tik toks of like these women who have like been experiencing these and they talk about it or they say this is a technique they'll use you know just to educate that these are real things that are Happ happening and or I almost got abducted and it shows like faces or or girls that are you know they can see themselves in their um in those videos and that they can try to prevent that whether it's like if somebody's following you around Target or if somebody is you know is tying something to your car door or um putting what is that the cream shaving cream on your windows so then when you go like this you can't see and then you know our money it's you know there's so many different techniques and so are different strategies um so that we try to educate um and then they can further that education outwards so we're trying to like reach a wide SP span of people yeah and why are these efforts important at the Grassroots um and you're bringing in like you said experts but from the Grassroots level and also younger voices why is it important that uh raising awareness among these younger generations and having also younger gener ations be involved in addressing the issues yeah so unfortunately um there is not a lot of now there's starting to become like the task force but unfortunately that has been um I guess that has ended um but it really comes from the community it really comes from us saying there's a need for this and we can't depend on the state to take action um so we need to do what we can what our capacity is to really like educate and do preventative work um because unfortunately we're not always protected in by the state or by you know America so I think it's really important that the Grassroots movement is key to Bringing awareness to protection to helping victims to helping families of victims um and it really takes a community to really help and um educate prevent um and take it to Congress take it to whatever we need to protest you know bring awareness of what is really happening and why why are we being targeted as a people as a race um talk about what is happening really on reservations off reservations in the city how how is this becoming one and three women but really in reality um it's like almost every woman I've ever met native woman has had an experience um of sexual violence domestic violence almost being kidnapped um or kidnapped or just a plethora of of things and ways that we have been targeted as as a people yeah and uh Janna uh we mentioned the task force the state task force has been dissolved you've worked on like we mentioned earlier a number of federal level and the state task force as well what would you like to see happen from the state now so we were able to develop a a state response plan and so which was released in 20122 and so I'm recognizing that a lot of other agencies and states do look to the state of New Mexico when it comes to how do we lead when it comes to mmip relatives um task force in that work and so other states they do want to mirror the same objectives and goals that we've been able to kind of established with the task force and I believe that some of the objectives that were and goals that were mentioned in that state response um there's still a lot of work that needs to be done um for for example I was um sitting on the systems subcommittee and that is where we were able to pretty much um really look into um state agencies and how are they responding um when it comes to um investigating and prevention measures and in the case that come before them that process and you know who is accountable to to making sure that these um cases are investigated um within missing and murdered indigenous relatives so that was an very important component we had other subcommittees such as the data in the community impact um subcommittees and so a lot of work was generated from those um subcommittees and which really in essence was the um bulk of the work from the state response plan so I I hope that we can move forward and and really um assess the need of the task force I know there's a lot of effort from community members that want to continue the task force and really calling upon the Indian Affairs Department to see how we can uh move forward with the task force and in you know requiring some accountability as well with some of these objectives and goals that we had in the state response plan well there's definitely a lot of work going on on various levels on this issue and I want to thank you both for coming in and talking a little bit today and we're definitely going to be following this thank you both thank you so much thank you Antonia in our final segment of the week we head to a public library branch in Albuquerque where staff and neighbors are celebrating Native American Heritage Month the city's entire library system is participating displaying books from native authors and films about Native American culture but at the San Pedro Library one Stafford took it a step further by hosting Navajo crafting classes Antonia Gonzales and our crew went for a demonstration earlier this month learning to make a decorative vase in the style of traditional Navajo moccasins all while gaining a deeper understanding of native culture and tradition from these crafts they have really opened a whole range of people that want to learn their culture and their Traditions again and at the same time keep up with it and be able to tell their little ones in the future and the reason why people should see how important that is is because we are experiencing a culture Gap and I love how for this craft I'm using the traditional colors because this burgundy looking color represents the Earth and everything about the moccasin especially the female moccasin has the purpose traditionally they're made from leather so if I'm actually wearing um female moccasins and this is made of leather wrap it around and then of course we have kind of like the red material and the of course bug skin again which is kind of harder on the bottom so today we're going to be making a moccasin flower bouquet so um we have our felt fabric and then I do have our white strands I have pair of scissors pencil some green foam for the end result some stuffing to give it that fluff and of course a red Solo cup nothing in there um glue stick and of course our little bouquet you can change these flowers uh with whatever you like uh but I thought I'd just go with like a an array of flowers that kind of go through different colors to make it pop umec if you want to use it as a centerpiece um so I'm a library prayer professional here at the San Pedro Library and I am a resource to our divers wonderful Community um we serve a plethora of people that come in on a daily and I am so excited to hear different languages come in and fill this little library of the cultural it's a cultural resource is what it is and the fact that people are using it on the daily and bringing bringing their kids here is very wonderful and I'm glad that I'm always here behind a desk with a huge smile on my face ready to serve them one one of the things to really know about libraries is that we know it's Paramount that the libraries develop Partnerships with Community leaders organizers um our neighbors to listen to their stories and um really understand the cultural responsive needs that they bring to the table and how did the American crafts come about I always wanted to do them um ever since I moved off the reservation into Albuquerque just as sort of a hobby and in doing so I've taught myself so much and I realize that I'm not the only one out there that wants to do these crafts I realize I'm not the only one out there that wants to relearn our traditions and at the same time have fun with it and create beautiful stuff like this and so this month is celebrating Native Native American heritage month and so you're going to see movies events for for adults events for children events for seniors that really um showcase and celebrate Native American Heritage and Native American culture and then it will take some time but that's okay because Navajo culture if you take your time put good thoughts into it good things will come out no matter what all right so I'm going to go ahead and take my glue gun and do a very very very very small that's not small but we'll go ahead and smooth it out and then we are going to work our way around it hold it there for one second and then we're going to continue to go around and how big was your school that you went to where you learn this very very very small um I did not know that graduating classes could reach up to the hundreds mine was only 14 oh okay and what was you the name of your school fake Community School located 30 Mi west of Albuquerque probably like 10 15 minutes from the actual Highway a wonderful school though I mean I'm so glad I actually grew up there immersed in my culture my mom worked within the school so what does that mean I grew up there waiting for her to get off um literally sleeping underneath the office desk and just waiting for her to finish our elders are slowly slowly going away and it's not until for example a small family they lose one of their Elders they're there goes the teachings and then there goes the language and of course they take that with them and so we really need to see and diminish that Gap and this is a way for them to do that and at the same time have fun with it because if you're not having fun with it what are you really learning so of course we have our um Navajo moccasin which holds a little flower bouquet and at the same time um we do have our rug crafting events that um people are able to do weaving and at the same time learn why they actually get to see a loom they actually get to see the traditional weaving tools and there's only so much a child can learn by just looking at a piece of paper with a picture on it and a short description I want them to be able to hold it and actually look through it because 50 years ago today our children would actually be sent to to boarding schools and forced to deconstruct their culture in doing so you know they're taking away their indigenous cultural identity which is very very important for us especially now it is it is really critical to have uh a diverse set of Staff especially staff that can share the lived experiences of our neighbors of our community so um whether is the there's you know the language barrier there's people hear that speak Spanish is as a community their first language is Spanish there are people here who speak Navajo we have people who speak Navajo so it is extremely important to make sure that we have that diversity to celebrate our neighbors and our community so that they see themselves reflected in this space because this is their space this is their library and that's how we want to celebrate it okay wonderful so mine's looking pretty pretty good and so we're going to go ahead and get our little stuff in and like I said I did this in fourth grade and it looked like clown feet so be sure to stuff it stely good yes you don't want the flat yes I yes my mom showed me it and it was terrible so I told her I made you a new one and it looks better this time definitely redeemed myself how important is it to share especially during Native American Heritage months to be able to do this here at the library it's been wonderful I feel like I am doing my job I feel like I am doing all that I can to cater to the younger generation the older generation so mine is done yours looks very very beautiful and that is going to be our Navajo magazine craft thanks for watching we will see you next week funding for New Mexico and focus provided by the viewers like you